How Long Does Honeydew Melon Last and How To Tell If It’s Bad?

Here’s everything you need to know about shelf life, spoilage, and storage of honeydew melon. Learn how long honeydews last, what are the spoilage signs, and where you should store them.

You’ve bought your first honeydew at the grocery store, and now you’re thinking about its shelf life. How long does honeydew melon last?

Or yours is quite old and you need to know if it’s safe to eat.

Sounds familiar? If so, you’ll find this article both interesting and useful. In it, we talk about:

• shelf life and storage of whole honeydews, and whether you need to refrigerate them or not
• what to do with a cut honeydew
• telling if yours is still okay to eat or not

Interested? Let’s go.

Disclaimer: Right now, all the photos in this article are photos of a Galia melon. Its interior looks similar to honeydew, but the rind is quite different. The photos will be updated once I get my hands on an actual honeydew melon.

How Long Does Honeydew Melon Last?

	Counter	Fridge
Honeydew melon (whole)	1 week	2 – 3 weeks
Honeydew melon (cut)		3 – 4 days
Honeydew (puree)		3 – 4 days

Whole honeydew melon keeps quality for about a week on the counter and two to three weeks in the fridge. Cut, sliced, or pureed honeydew lasts up to four days in the fridge.

Honeydews retain quality much longer if you store them in the fridge than if they sit at room temperature. Nevertheless, they keep quite well on the counter, so that’s my go-to place for them. Unless, of course, I need them to last like two weeks.

(The same approach works for watermelons, which I cover in How long do watermelons last? article.)

For leftovers, they keep for about 4 to 5 days in the fridge. And as always with leftover fruit, the sooner you eat them, the better they taste.

If the mentioned periods aren’t long enough for your needs, you can freeze honeydew.

If you’re buying honeydews knowing they will have to last quite some time in storage, choose ones that:

• feel heavy for their size
• are without blemishes, brown spots, or any other injuries
• are uniform in color (greenish to yellow)

How To Store Honeydew Melon

You can store honeydew melons either on the counter or in the fridge. The latter is a better choice if you need them to last the longest. When it comes to cut honeydew, seal it tightly and put it in the refrigerator.

The optimal temperature for these melons is 45°F (7°C), so a bit higher than what’s in your fridge. Because of that, your refrigerator is the best option, especially for prolonged storage.

If you know that you’re going to eat the honeydew within a couple of days of buying it, leaving it on the counter is okay (that’s what I do). That’s because they are quite bulky and take a lot of space in the fridge.

When it comes to leftovers, they should sit in the fridge where they stay safe.

For storage, I use freezer bags and airtight containers. The former are great if you need to store a half or a quarter of a melon, while the latter work well for slices and cubes.

How To Tell If Honeydew Melon Is Bad?

Signs of spoiled honeydew include:

• Light or hollow feel. That means they’ve lost most of their water and are be no good at this point.
• Large bruises or damaged areas. As usual, you can cut off a few smaller ones, but if the decayed part is like a third of the fruit, it’s probably time to let it go.
• Storage time longer than 4 days for cut honeydew. At that point, they might still be safe to eat, but you never know. Better safe than sorry.
• An off smell or taste. Honeydews that sit in storage for prolonged periods soften and lose flavor. If yours doesn’t taste fresh and sweet, discard it. There’s no point in eating stale or tasteless fruit.

As you can tell, some of the points above are up to you to judge.

One piece of advice I can give is: go with your gut. If that somewhat older honeydew still looks and smells pretty tasty, go for it. But if it’s already off-putting, accept your losses and get rid of it.

That works the same way for other melons, such as cantaloupe or watermelon. Or pretty much any fruit.

Finally, honeydew melons last a bit longer and keep quality a bit better than other melons. Therefore, chances are that week-old honeydew in the fruit basket will still taste quite good.